Children in Care

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent discussions he has had with Ofsted regarding the prompt safe sharing of data with local authorities and Local Safeguarding Children Boards on newly registered private children's homes.

Elizabeth Truss: holding answer 29 October 2012
	The Department has had a number of very positive meetings with Ofsted and other key partners on this issue. We shall shortly consult on proposals to enable Ofsted to share data on the names and addresses of children's homes with the police and the Office of the Children's Commissioner, in addition to local authorities on a monthly basis. Local authorities and the police are statutory members of Local Safeguarding Children Boards.

Children in Care

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what mechanisms are in place to ensure that when a child in care is transferred from one local authority to another the local authority and Local Safeguarding Board to which the child moves are informed.

Edward Timpson: holding answer 29 October 2012
	Regulation (11)(2)(d) of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010, which came into effect on 1 April 2011, requires that prior to approving a placement of a looked after child out of area, the officer nominated by the authority responsible for the child's care must be satisfied that the authority for the area where the child will be living has been notified.
	We established an expert group on 'out of area' placements to focus on how to improve such arrangements, including the effectiveness of the current notification requirements, and the quality of care and support for looked after children placed 'out of area' by their local authorities. The group has met frequently over the summer and I will consider proposals from its work shortly.

Children: Protection

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what systems he plans to put in place to allow safe data sharing between Ofsted, local authorities, the police, local safeguarding children boards and all other agencies that have a role in child protection.

Edward Timpson: holding answer 29 October 2012
	All professionals working with children have a duty to cooperate and share information between agencies to protect a child. This is essential if children are to receive the help they need. Professionals should have access to the information that they need when they need it to make the right decisions for children and young people.
	We believe that it is for local areas to consider the most appropriate way to ensure that data and information is shared safely and effectively across all agencies. We are working with local authorities, the Association of Directors of Children's Services, health colleagues and the police to develop effective information and data-sharing policy and protocols to help vulnerable children and families.
	A key part of reinforcing the importance of information sharing between agencies is set out in “Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010)”. We are currently considering how to reinforce this fundamental message in the revised version of “Working Together”, on which we have recently consulted.

Broadband

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much anticipated revenue from the 4G spectrum auction was allocated to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the 2010 Spending Review.

Sajid Javid: The Government made no assumptions at spending review 2010 about the level of receipts from the award of 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum licenses. However BIS have since been allocated an entitlement of up to but no more than £600 million.

Child Benefit

Alasdair McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is on introducing a cap on child benefit for families with more than two children.

David Gauke: The Government is exploring further options for making the welfare system fairer and more affordable, and details will be announced in due course.

PAYE

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many standardised penalty notices HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) issued to companies deemed to be failing to file PAYE returns in 2011; how many such penalties were paid in full; how many such notices were cancelled after issue; how many such notices were issued to companies which had previously notified HMRC that they no longer employed any staff; what estimate he has made of the number of penalty notices issued in error; and what his policy is on steps to prevent the repeated issue of such notices.

David Gauke: The information requested is available only at disproportionate cost, as the data is not centrally held by HM Revenue and Customs data systems.

Taxation: Self-assessment

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost was to HM Revenue and Customs of processing self-assessment forms in the last tax year.

David Gauke: The information requested is available only at disproportionate cost.
	Self assessment forms cover a wide variety of self assessment notifications, including but not limited to the self assessment tax return. Depending on the form, they may be made in electronic or paper format requiring automated, manual or a mixture of these processing methods.

Employment Schemes

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what evaluation of the effectiveness of the Employability Programme has been conducted by his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Hoban: No formal evaluation of the Employability Programme in the Wessex District has. been carried out. Its processes however were reviewed and brought into line with the national Skills Conditionality process. Skills Conditionality was re launched in Wessex on 2 July and the Employability Programme was renamed as Skills Conditionality.

Personal Independence Payment

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place a copy of his Department's impact assessment of Lots 1 and 3 of the contract with Atos Healthcare for the personal independence payment in the Library.

Esther McVey: No impact assessment has been produced of Lots 1 and 3 of the contract with Atos Healthcare, as there is no requirement to do so. All DWP procurement exercises follow a robust commercial process which is in line with EU public procurement requirements and includes the evaluation of proposals against agreed and published evaluation criteria. However, that process does not include any requirement to deliver an Impact Assessment.
	Any change of policy does though require such an Impact Assessment and that has been published for the personal independence payment “Disability Living Allowance reform (Personal Independence Payment)”.

Social Security Benefits: Cumbria

John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Barrow and Furness constituency and (b) Cumbria were in receipt of (i) the means-tested portion of jobseeker's allowance, (ii) the means-tested portion of employment and support allowance and (iii) income support in the 2011-12 tax year.

Mark Hoban: Information on the number of people in receipt of income support in Barrow and Furness constituency, and local authorities in Cumbria for the periods February 2011 and February 2012 can be found at:
	http://83.244.183.180/100pc/is/tabtool_is.html
	Information on the number of people in receipt of employment and support allowance (income based) in Barrow and Furness constituency, and local authorities in Cumbria for the periods February 2011 and February 2012 can be found at:
	http://83.244.183.180/100pc/esa/tabtool_esa.html
	Information on the number of people in receipt of jobseeker's allowance (income
	based) is only available from DWP 5% sample data. Information on Barrow and Furness constituency, and local authorities in Cumbria for the periods February 2011 and February 2012 can be found at:
	http://83.244.183.180/5pc/jsa_prim/tabtool_jsa_prim.html
	Guidance for users is available at:
	http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/guidance.pdf

Social Security Benefits: Greater London

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of households that will be affected by the household benefit cap in April 2013 in each (a) local authority area in London and (b) parliamentary constituency in London; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Hoban: On 16 July 2012 the Department published an updated Impact Assessment for the household benefit cap, which estimated that in Great Britain 56,000 households would be affected by the cap in the first year of its implementation (the financial year 2013-14).
	A table showing a breakdown of the number of households who will be affected, by local authority, was placed in the Library and can be found at:
	http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-1447/LocalAuthoritybreakdownaffectedbybenefitcap.doc
	A table showing a breakdown by parliamentary constituency has been placed in the Library. (DEP2012-1587)
	Please note that in both of the tables household numbers are rounded to the nearest 100. Areas with fewer than 100 households affected are denoted by “..”, as additional disclosure control has been applied to these areas. For this reason, figures will not sum to the total number of households affected in the July 2012 Impact Assessment for the household benefit cap.
	We assume that the situation of these households will go unchanged, and they will not take any steps to either work enough hours to qualify for working tax credit, renegotiate their rent in situ, or find alternative accommodation. In all cases the Department is working to support households through this transition, using existing provision through Jobcentre Plus and the Work Programme to move as many into work as possible. Therefore, please note that these figures are subject to change prior to the policy being implemented in April 2013.

Work Programme

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which (a) prime contractors and (b) sub-contractors have withdrawn from the Work programme since it began.

Mark Hoban: No prime contractors have left the Work programme.
	As expected, Work programme supply chains are dynamic, and adapt to meet the emerging needs of participants. The Department conducts a six monthly stock take of subcontractors that make up the supply chains.
	The first stock take took place in August 2011, to allow supply chains time to bed in after the Work programme was launched. A further stock take was undertaken in January 2012. Across these two stock takes in total it was identified that 44 new organisations had joined the supply chain and 41 were no longer subcontractors as follows:
	2D Voluntary and Community Support
	Arch
	Autism West Midlands
	BRAVE
	Brighton and Hove Council
	British Refugee Council
	Bromley Field Studies
	Business Enterprise UK (NE Employers Coalition)
	Cheshire CVS
	Cornwall Neighbourhood for Change
	Create
	Escape
	Greater Manchester NHS Trust
	Growing Well
	GWE Business West
	Hartlepool County Council (Hartlepool Works)
	Independence Trust
	LHA Support Services Ltd
	New Highway
	North Somerset Enterprise Agency
	North West Third Sector SPV Ltd
	Nove New Opportunities
	P3
	Phoenix Security
	Ranstad Support
	Remit Ltd
	Right 2 Work (Oaklea Trust)
	Right Direction
	Second Step
	Shire4Education Ltd
	SIGTA Ltd
	Skills4Success
	Social Enterprise
	Social Enterprise West Midlands
	The Armstrong Group
	The Peoples Supermarket
	Twin Valley Homes
	West Midlands College Network
	Wiltshire Mind
	Wiltshire Probation
	Zinc
	A further stock take will be published shortly.

Deportation: Offenders

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign national criminals were not deported due to the provisions of section 33(4) of the UK Borders Act 2007, in each year since that provision entered force.

Mark Harper: Between April 2012 and September 2012, 54 individuals were extradited from the UK and therefore not deported from the UK under Section 33(4) of the UK Border Act 2007. Data prior to 2012 is not available.
	This is internal management information and is subject to change.

Training

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 15 October 2012, Official Report, column 107W, on training, what the cost was of the training; and which company provided the training.

Mark Harper: The former Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Equalities and Criminal Information, the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone), attended a half day media and presentation training session. This was paid for from the central civil service Core Learning Programme fund therefore the Home Office incurred no direct cost.
	The former Minister of State for Crime Prevention and Anti-Social Behaviour Reduction, Lord Henley, attended a two hour media session. The training was facilitated by a private individual consultant. The cost of this training was £843.60.

Dangerous Dogs

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people were subject to proceedings in a magistrates' court for offences under the Dogs Act 1871 in 2011; and if he will make a statement.

David Heath: The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences under the Dogs Act 1871 cannot be separately identified from offences under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1989.
	The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1989, in England and Wales in 2011 is 129.

Kazakhstan

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to his counterpart in Kazakhstan in respect of Pastor Makset Djabbarbergenov.

David Lidington: The British embassy in Astana is aware of the case of Pastor Makset Djabbarbergenov. The embassy is closely monitoring developments alongside the EU delegation and US embassy, and are in regular contact with local representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who are acting on behalf of the Pastor. Our embassy will continue to support the UNHCR's efforts to resolve the case.

Ukraine

Denis MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the conduct of recent elections in Ukraine; and if he will make a statement.

David Lidington: As I said in my statement to the House on 30 October 2012, Official Report, column 160, the preliminary report from the international election observers indicates a number of shortcomings the way in which the elections were conducted. We hope that in the remaining stages of the electoral process, in any appeals that follow, and, crucially, in how the Ukrainian Government conduct themselves after the elections, we will not see the wholesale democratic backsliding that we fear and that would set back Ukraine's relationship with Europe.
	The UK remains a strong supporter of Ukraine's European aspirations. We will urge the new Ukrainian Government, when it is formed, to address what needs to be done to bring new vigour to the process of building and sustaining healthy and robust democratic institutions.

USA

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many representatives of the Government attended the 2012 (a) US Democratic Party national convention and (b) US Republican Party national convention; and what the cost of their attendance was.

Alistair Burt: Our ambassador to the United States and six representatives from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's US network attended the Democratic and Republican national conventions at a cost of $14,353.29 (approximately £8,888.73), and $16,460.64 (approximately £10,193.76) respectively. The delegations were the same size as those that attended the conventions in 2008.

Blood: Contamination

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if his Department will publish (a) a list of all known blood-borne infections, distinguishing between those known to be pathogenic and non-pathogenic and (b) the dates when de-activation techniques were introduced for each of those infections.

Anna Soubry: NHS Blood and Transplant has prepared a list of all blood-borne infections, distinguishing between those known to be pathogenic and non-pathogenic which has been placed in the Library.
	Heat treatment of some fractionated plasma products, such as clotting factors for the treatment of haemophilia was introduced in 1985. Heat treatment inactivates viruses such as HIV and hepatitis C. Since then, the measures in place to assure the safety and quality of blood components and blood products manufactured from them, have developed and improved significantly, and those standards are regulated by law.
	It is currently not possible to eliminate microbiological agents from red cell units without damaging the viability of red cells. Pathogen inactivation of imported fresh frozen plasma is achieved by the use of Methylene Blue, and by leucodepletion (removal of white cells) to reduce the risk of transmission of white cell associated viruses. The risk of bacterial contamination of platelets is reduced by bacterial screening.
	The most effective way of protecting patients against both known and unrecognised blood-borne infections is to avoid the use of blood products from potential donors who have greater probability of having been exposed to blood-borne infections. Therefore, all donors undergo a routine health questionnaire prior to blood donation to assess their suitability. All donations undergo mandatory testing for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human T-cell lymphotrophic virus and treponemal (eg syphilis) infections. Additional discretionary testing is used for those donors whose responses to the health questionnaire suggest possible exposure to infections. In addition, United Kingdom blood services have in place travel deferrals to reduce the risk of transmission of blood-borne infections from areas of high incidences such as Malaria.

Hospitals: Parking

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the revenue raised annually by hospitals through parking charges in (a) England, (b) the West Midlands, (c) Dudley and (d) London.

Norman Lamb: The national health service provides data to the Department annually relating to car parking; however, data relating to the revenue raised annually by hospitals from patients, visitors and staff through parking charges is not currently collected from the NHS.
	Historically, the Department collected annual data from NHS trusts on car parking provision and any associated charges, through the Estates Returns information Collection. The collection of this data ceased after the 2007-08 collection, in order to lessen the burden on the NHS to provide central returns.
	The data on total income from patients, visitors and staff which was collected for 2007-08 is provided in the following table:
	
		
			 2007-08 
			  £ million 
			 England 112 
			 West Midlands 12 
			 Dudley 0 
			 London 14 
		
	
	The information provided has been supplied by the NHS and has not been amended centrally. The accuracy and completeness of the information is the responsibility of the provider organisation.

Hospitals: Parking

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what information his Department holds on which NHS hospitals charge for parking; and in each case at what hourly rate;
	(2)  what information his Department holds on which NHS hospitals charge their staff for parking; and in each case at what hourly rate;
	(3)  what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of hospitals that charge for parking in (i) England, (ii) the West Midlands, (iii) Dudley and (iv) London;
	(4)  what estimate he has made of the average hourly parking rates at hospitals in (a) England, (b) the West Midlands, (c) Dudley and (d) London.

Norman Lamb: The national health service provides data to the Department annually relating to car parking. This includes the following data at hospital sites:
	average fee charged per hour for patient/visitor parking; and
	average fee charged per hour for staff parking.
	This data for the latest available year, 2011-12, has been placed in the Library.
	Based on the above data for 2011-12, estimates of the number, proportion of hospitals that charge for parking and average hourly parking rates for patients and visitors at hospital sites are:
	
		
			  Number of hospital sites that charge for parking Percentage of hospital sites that charge for parking Average hourly parking rates per hospital site (£) 
			 England 377 30 1.17 
			 West Midlands 46 35 1.17 
			 Dudley 3 38 1.30 
			 London 52 25 1.55 
		
	
	All the data provided has been supplied by the NHS and has not been amended centrally. The accuracy and completeness of the information is the responsibility of the provider organisation.

Boiling Water Reactors

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether the advanced boiling water reactor design employed by Hitchi for nuclear power generation was subject to his design assessment approval process.

John Hayes: The GE-Hitachi Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) has not, as yet, been assessed by the independent nuclear Regulators (Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency) as part of their Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process. I welcome Hitachi's announcement on 30 October that following completion of its purchase of Horizon it will immediately work towards achieving acceptance of the ABWR for potential construction in the UK through the GDA process.

Climate Change Convention

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent progress he has made in negotiations on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Gregory Barker: The UNFCCC has delivered significant achievements in building a multilateral rules based regime in recent years. This includes agreement to the need to limit average global temperature rise to no more than 2° above pre industrial levels. We have emission reduction pledges under the UNFCCC from developing and developed countries covering over 80% of global emissions, which take us around half way towards the 2° goal if implemented in full, and guidelines for measurement, reporting and verification of emissions have been agreed.
	There has been commitment from developed countries to mobilise $100 billion per annum by 2020 from a range of public, private and innovative sources to support developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation and transparency. Furthermore, commitments approaching $30 billion of ‘Fast Start Finance’ were made for the period 2010-12; and the Green Climate Fund has been operationalised and making progress on its design so that it can be ready to receive funding as soon as possible.
	Also of note is the establishment of the technology mechanism to facilitate technology development and transfer to support action on mitigation and adaptation; the Adaptation Committee; a new global market mechanism; and modalities have been developed for a mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries.
	In Durban at the end of 2011, parties to the UNFCCC agreed to negotiate by 2015 at the latest, a new global, legal deal to come into force from 2020 and for the first time applicable to all. Parties also agreed to address the gap in mitigation ambition in the period up to 2020.
	In the context of the Durban package, the EU agreed to sign up to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to start from 1 January 2013, as part of a transition to a single global deal applicable to all, preserving the architecture and mechanisms of this rules-based, multilateral, legally binding agreement as something we can build on.
	We will be looking to take further steps forward on all elements at Doha at the end of this year.

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change 
	(1)  whether he has any plans to reform the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme or to establish a successor scheme that seeks to recycle all or part of the monies paid in by participants to the most energy-efficiency participants;
	(2)  whether he has plans to establish a successor scheme to the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme that seeks to use all or some of the monies levied by the Government on participants to directly support public energy efficiency or renewable energy programmes.

Gregory Barker: Following the recent consultation on simplification of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency scheme, I intend to announce Government's decision on simplification and the future of the CRC later this year. The revenue from the CRC scheme contributes towards reducing the deficit and any future decisions on how to use these monies will be taken in light of prevailing economic factors. The Government's spending priorities are not, in general, determined by the way in which the money is raised as this imparts inflexibility.

North Sea Oil and Gas

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of any contribution to greenhouse gas emissions that may result from (a) the 167 new North Sea oil and gas licences announced on 25 October 2012 and (b) the policy that he announced on that date that every last economic drop of oil and gas from the North Sea will be produced; if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of these developments on (i) the achievement of the UK's domestic carbon budgets, (ii) his objective of reducing the UK's dependency on fossil fuels and on volatile global energy prices and (c) the UK's international efforts to secure global action to avoid dangerous climate change; and if he will make a statement.

John Hayes: We are fully committed to meeting our carbon budgets, and to meeting our international commitments on action to avoid dangerous climate change. However, our energy needs today-are predominantly supplied by oil and gas. Despite our ambitious programmes to shift supply to low-carbon sources and to improve energy efficiency, projections point to the need for a substantial proportion of our overall energy needs to be supplied by oil and gas for years to come.
	The choice is therefore between obtaining these supplies from indigenous sources, with all the benefits that provides to UK employment and the economy, or paying to obtain supplies from abroad. Though some 40 billion barrels of oil equivalent have already been produced from the UK Continental Shelf, there may be 20 billion more which could yet be produced. Our work on oil and gas licensing, exploration and development therefore aims to secure over time the maximum economic recovery of these resources.

Prisoners

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were in prison for offences of (a) homicide, (b) sexual offences, (c) violent offences, (d) crimes against children, (e) robbery and (f) burglary in the latest period for which figures are available; and how many such people were serving sentences of (i) four years or less, (ii) one year or less and (iii) six months or less.

Jeremy Wright: Figures on offenders serving immediate custodial sentences by offence group and sentence length are provided in the table. It is not possible to separately identify the numbers serving sentences for crimes against children, because the prisoner offence details held centrally do not include information on the age of the victim.
	We are toughening up sentencing for the most serious and dangerous offenders. Anyone convicted of murder must receive an automatic life sentence. We have now also introduced mandatory life sentences—a 'two strikes' policy—so that a mandatory life sentence will be given to anyone convicted of a second very serious sexual or violent crime. This will mean that mandatory life sentences can be given for crimes other than murder. In addition, the new extended determinate sentence will mean that all dangerous offenders convicted of serious sexual and violent crimes will be imprisoned for at least two thirds of their custodial term—and they will be subject to extended monitoring in the community on release.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
	
		
			 Prison population serving an immediate custodial sentence (1) , England and Wales as at 30 September 2012 
			   Of which: 
			 Offence group/offence Total Six months or less Less than 12 months Less than four years 
			 Violence against the person 20,275 1,108 1,622 5,377 
			 Of which:     
			 Homicide(2) 7,501 8 34 282 
			      
			 Sexual offences 10,546 101 237 1,812 
			 Robbery 9,222 33 104 2,583 
			 Burglary 7,482 238 524 4,613 
			 Other offences(3) 25,744 3,758 5,183 13,869 
			 All offences 73,269 5,238 7,670 28,254 
			 (1) Figures for immediate custodial population includes recallees, but excludes fine defaulters. (2) Includes: Murder, Manslaughter, Attempted homicide, Making threats to kill, and Causing death by careless/dangerous driving. (3) Includes: Theft and Handling, Fraud and forgery, Drug offences, Motoring offences, and offences not recorded.

Reoffenders

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the actual rate of reoffending was better than the predicted rate (a) nationally and (b) locally for all probation trusts in England and Wales on the latest date for which figures are available, relative to national targets for 2011-12.

Jeremy Wright: Nationally the 2010 adult proven re-offending rate was 25.3% and the predicted rate was 25.8%.
	By probation trust, for those adult offenders commencing a court order in 2010, 28 probation trusts had no significant difference between the actual and the predicted rate of re-offending. Six probation trusts (Gloucestershire, Humberside, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and West Midlands, Thames Valley and Warwickshire) had a significantly lower actual rate of re-offending than the predicted rate. One probation trust (Nottinghamshire) had a significantly higher actual rate of re-offending than predicted.
	By probation trust, for those adult offenders released from prison on licence in 2010, 29 probation trusts had no significant difference between the actual and the predicted rate of re-offending. Two probation trusts (Devon and Cornwall and Staffordshire and West Midlands) had a significantly lower actual rate of re-offending than the predicted rate. Four probation trusts (Humberside, Nottinghamshire, Thames Valley and Wales) had a significantly higher actual rate of re-offending than predicted.
	Proven re-offending is defined as any offence committed in a one year follow-up period and receiving a court conviction, caution, reprimand or warning in the one year follow-up period or a further six month waiting period to allow cases to progress through the courts.
	This question has been answered using the Ministry of Justice's published proven re-offending statistics for England and Wales, These statistics are published on a quarterly basis and the latest available bulletin is for the period January to December 2010.

Aviation

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will assess the time taken to issue a licence after the satisfactory completion of training and test for an aviation licence or variation of a licence; what the reasons are for the time taken there is a delay in issuing such licences; and if he will make a statement.

Patrick McLoughlin: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has a published target to issue personnel licences within 10 working days of the receipt of the application. However, new EU aviation safety legislation that came into effect on 17 September has required the CAA to put new procedures in place and created a temporary increase in licence applications. As a result the 10 day target is not being met in all cases since that date. The CAA has had to prioritise applications for professional pilot and air traffic controller licences to ensure that they are issued within the published target. This has meant that some applications for other licences and ratings have been taking up to 26 working days to be processed. The CAA continues to offer a same-day service for applicants who visit its offices at Gatwick. The CAA is working hard to reduce delays and issue all licences within the published target.

West Coast Railway Line: Franchises

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport by what date his Department plans to provide to the Laidlaw inquiry all the documentation it has requested.

Patrick McLoughlin: The Laidlaw inquiry is an ongoing inquiry and requests for information held by the Department have been and continue to be made at regular intervals. The Department for Transport endeavours to meet all of these requests as soon as possible. The inquiry team has had the full co-operation of the Department throughout the 10 day initial review process and this remains the case.

Aircraft Carriers

Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 17 October 2012, Official Report, column 310W, on aircraft carriers, what estimate he has made of the expected number of days in a year a single Queen Elizabeth class carrier will be operational; and how many days each year he estimates will be required for refit and maintenance.

Philip Dunne: holding answer 26 October 2012
	I am withholding the information on how many days a Queen Elizabeth Class carrier will be operational in a year, as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces. The in-service support solution for the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers is still in development, with a decision expected around the middle of this decade.

Police and Crime Commissioners

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales 
	(1)  what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on steps to ensure that the election of police and crime commissioners will be conducted on a fully bilingual basis in Wales in the last 12 months;
	(2)  when he was informed of the need for legislation to be passed to ensure that the elections of police and crime commissioners in Wales are conducted on a fully bilingual basis.

David Jones: The Government is, and always has been, committed to conducting the election of police and crime commissioners in Wales on a fully bilingual basis, and to passing the necessary legislation to enable this to happen.

Political Parties: Finance

Annette Brooke: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he plans to commence the provision in the Political Parties and Election Act 2009 that all donors who give over £7,500 are domiciled in the UK for tax purposes.

Chloe Smith: The Government is committed to looking at the issue as part of the wider work to pursue agreement on the reform of party political funding. Discussions between the main political parties at Westminster are currently under way and the Government hopes consensus will be reached swiftly.
	It is important to ensure that these specific provisions are workable in practice as well as consistent with the wider legislative framework. There is already a robust legal framework in place to ensure that only individuals that are registered on the electoral register and organisations that conduct business in the UK can make donations.

Graphene

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the level is of Government investment in graphene development and research; in which vehicles such investments were made; and what progress has been made in such development and research.

David Willetts: The Government is investing significant funding to support research into the properties of graphene, potential applications for this material and activities relating its commercialisation. These investments are:
	£38 million to create a National Institute of Graphene Research at the University of Manchester;
	£12 million capital for graphene research equipment in other leading research groups across the UK to complement existing activity in graphene science and engineering;
	£10 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support graphene engineering research—focused on manufacturing processes and technologies linked to graphene; and
	£10 million jointly from EPSRC/Technology Strategy Board to establish an Innovation Knowledge Centre in graphene and related carbon-based nanotechnology to accelerate the commercial application of merging graphene technologies.
	In addition, EPSRC has previously awarded £17 million of research grants to universities working on graphene related research. UK universities have also attracted an additional €8 million of funding from the European Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation, and a further £3 million from other sources, including the Learned Societies.

Developing Countries: Disability

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will take steps to propose the insertion of a reference to people with disabilities in the millennium development goals.

Lynne Featherstone: The UK recognises the importance of including disabled people in development programmes that aim to improve the lives of the poorest. The Ministerial Declaration of July 2010 agreed at the United Nations (UN) accepted that it was essential to address the needs of disabled people if the millennium development goals (MDGs) were to be achieved. The Declaration and accompanying report highlighted the link between disability and marginalisation in education. It emphasised the need to ensure that women and girls with disabilities are not subject to multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination or excluded from participation in the implementation of the MDGs.
	The UN is currently drafting a new resolution on including disability in development and is planning a high level meeting on the realization of the millennium development goals and other internationally agreed development goals for persons with disabilities in September 2013. This work is expected to contribute to the discussions on the post-MDGs work.

Developing Countries: Primary Education

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with reference to recent UNESCO estimates of high numbers of children with disabilities being excluded from education, what assessment she has made of progress towards achieving the millennium development goal of universal primary education by 2015.

Lynne Featherstone: The UK Government is committed to helping provide a good quality basic education for all children, including those with a disability.
	The UK is playing its part in helping to achieve the millennium development goal of universal primary education. The DFID 2012 annual report shows that the UK is supporting 5.3 million children in primary education (2.5 million girls) and 600,000 in lower secondary education in developing countries. The UK has also helped to train 90,000 teachers. Improving access for children with disability is an important concern, for example DFID is supporting the Schools Sector Reform Programme (SSRP) in Nepal to improving enrolment and attendance in school by children with disabilities. The SSRP includes a number of initiatives such as: targeted scholarships provided to disabled girls; enrolment and progress by disabled students is tracked; and schools are constructed for children with special needs.
	DFID supports disabled people through a variety of means including through country programmes and multilateral organisations such as Global Partnership for Education, UNICEF and the European Commission. We provide support through the Global Poverty Action Fund, Comic Relief and through strategic Programme Partnership Arrangements with organisations like Action for Disability and Development (ADD) and Sightsavers.
	Over the comprehensive spending review period the UK has pledged to support 9 million children in primary school, over half of whom will be girls and 2 million in lower secondary education. In addition, the DFID Girls Education Challenge will support up to an additional 1 million of the world's poorest girls, including those with disability to complete their education.

Civil Servants: Disciplinary Proceedings

Tom Watson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many civil servants in central Government departments have been (a) subject to disciplinary action and (b) dismissed as a consequence of convictions for offences of child abuse since 1982.

Francis Maude: Information about the discipline and dismissal of civil servants is not held centrally. Under the terms of delegation Departments are responsible for their own discipline regimes and record keeping.